The elusive Buddhist concept of anatta, or non-independent self (non-self), is often difficult to grasp and leaves practitioners and students confused, and yet it is one of the three marks of existence that underlie Buddhist teachings. The other two marks are dissatisfaction or suffering, and impermanence.

“How can this thing I think of as me not exist? And if that is actually true, then who am I?”

I often hear this during ketamine sessions from clients as the ego dissolves, disappears, and reforms, leaving them sometimes frightened of dying or not existing, other times exhilarated at the freedom of being nothing and everything at the same time, no longer constricted within a small sense of self. The clients who come to me hoping for an “ego death” are usually the ones who scream and yell loudest when it actually happens, versus those who come with humility and willingness to surrender to whatever arises and unfolds. They seem to experience the true inner peace and freedom that come when they are no longer bound to conditions of their minds.

It is said we suffer when we cling and attach to the idea of who we think we are.

1. We continue to change and grow, so who we were is not who we are now, and who we are now is not who we will be tomorrow. Impermanence is nature, and we see it in nature from the smallest atom to the cosmos. To stay stuck rather than be fluid is to fight nature.

2. We are so much greater, more expansive, and ultimately more unlimited than we can........

© Psychology Today